Woman paralysed after fall during sex loses case against bed company

A woman left paralysed after being "catapulted" from her new bed during sex has lost her seven-figure claim for damages against the bed supplier.

Claire Busby, of Maidenhead, Berkshire, suffered a serious injury to her spine when she fell from the super king size double divan as she changed position.

The 46-year-old claimed the bed was in a "defective state" at the time of her accident and took legal action against Berkshire Bed Company, trading as Beds Are Uzzz, which supplied it.

But, rejecting her case, Judge Barry Cotter found the bed was "not defective" and that Ms Busby's fall was a "tragic accident".

Announcing his decision on Friday, the judge said: "As a result of the matters set out above, the claim in relation to this tragic accident, which is what I find it was, a simple accident, fails."

During the trial, the court heard that the bed was one of five delivered to Ms Busby's then home, Rosewood House in Ockwells Road, Maidenhead, in August 2013 when she was renovating the property.

Ms Busby, who used to work in the property sector, was injured a week after the bed's delivery while having sex with her then partner, John Marshall.

She told the court she was kneeling in the middle of the bed performing a sex act when she decided to move position and "swung her legs" from underneath her, before lying back on the bed with her head towards the bottom end.

At that point she claimed the bed gave way and she toppled off the end, landing on her head.

The judge found that two gliders, or feet, were missing from the bottom end of the bed, but concluded this was not the cause of Ms Busby's accident.

He said a "much more likely cause" for the fall was that she was in an "unusual position" towards the foot of the bed and kneeling back on her feet.

Judge Cotter said she had no means of support, other than placing her arm down on the bed, as she attempted to swing her legs around from underneath her in what was "not an easy manoeuvre".

He added: "Having carefully considered the totality of the evidence I am not satisfied that the difference in level between the two divans played any part in Ms Busby's loss of balance backwards.

"Rather, I am satisfied that this was a simple but tragic fall; she simply overbalanced probably in part because she was sitting on a mattress as opposed to a firm surface, and underestimated the amount of give underneath her body."